ACADEMIA

OCZ Technology Group announced that its SAS-based Talos 2 SSDs have been selected by HyVE (Hybrid Virtualization Engine) Systems for implementation within three high-compute platforms targeted for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) academic and corporate end user compute solutions. Providing stellar read/write input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance, high reliability and availability of stored data and desktop applications, the ability to grow with the HyVE Systems platforms, and cost-effectiveness were the key attributes that aided in the selection of OCZ Talos 2 drives.

Combining proven virtualization solutions with state-of-the-art, best-of-breed hardware products that support next-generation cloud requirements, the HyVE System VDI platform provides a cost-effective, high-performance environment that scales to the needs of their customers while providing an extremely low cost per desktop without jeopardizing quality, reliability or performance. A typical HyVE System VDI solution has a fixed cost of approximately $200 per desktop which is significantly lower than traditional virtual solutions that typically start at $1,500 per desktop, and scale down cost to approximately $700 per desktop, depending on infrastructure costs.

HyVE Systems' VDI solutions are smaller, less expensive high-compute platforms that can run either 100+ or 200+ VDI desktops on a single node. For example, many K-12 school districts do not have the budgets to purchase, deploy and maintain brand new computing equipment for their student population and must leverage the existing network infrastructure to cost-effectively extend its life while enabling students and teachers to use their own computing devices regardless of age, operating system or hardware architecture. This approach enables state-of-the-art VDI solutions to be stored as a virtualized desktop on the HyVE central server platform so that students and teachers can work from whatever local computing device they have while the system programs, applications, processes and data are kept on the remote server and run centrally.

Supporting a 6Gb/s SAS interface, capacities up to 1TB, and 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors, Talos 2 SSDs are designed specifically for mixed workloads in enterprise environments. HyVE Systems leverages OCZ's Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0 technology which implements an intelligent complex command queuing structure with unique queue balancing algorithms that improves performance even further. As a result, Talos 2 SSDs deliver the industry's fastest random transactional performance supporting up to 70,000 random 4K read IOPS and 54,000 IOPS for mixed 4K workloads representing 75 percent reads and 25 percent writes.

Unlike many competitive SAS-based SSDs, Talos 2 SSDs are dual ported to provide two redundant data paths, and support OCZ's DataWrite Assurance data protection in case of a sudden power loss adding to the product's superior data integrity. Increased security and encryption features (such as AES-256 support and ATA Secure Erase support) coupled with high endurance Multi-Level Cell (MLC) features (such as advanced ECC protection and recovery, minimal write amplification, intelligent block management and wear-leveling) help extend Talos 2 drive life.

"We extensively tested a range of solid-state storage solutions running an intense variety of IO traffic on each and the OCZ Talos 2 SSDs significantly outperformed all other solutions while providing a 10x improvement in performance when compared to a traditional SAN solution with SSD fast cache capabilities," said David Harmon, President of HyVE Systems. "But what really impressed us was the drive's ability to consistently recover from forced failures that we initiated as part of the testing that most of the other SSDs tested could not match. With the industry's best IOPS performance, high enterprise reliability and availability, and a product roadmap that enables this SSD to grow and scale with our HyVE high-compute platforms, positioned the Talos 2 as a best-of-breed product."

"We are very pleased to have been selected by HyVE Systems as part of this highly optimized virtual desktop platform empowering academia with leading-edge cloud solutions that fit within a fixed school budget, meet performance objectives and scale to the needs of the school district and its students," said Alex Mei, CMO of OCZ Technology Group. "We feel that HyVE's concept of building simple and reliable high-compute servers that can run VDI desktops efficiently and cost-effectively will literally provide a VDI hotspot for students that will enhance their user experience."

HyVE Systems has developed three unique VDI high-compute servers that include a standalone VDI-in-a-box solution that supports 8 Talos 2 SSDs and is ideal for small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) applications; a clustered VDI solution that supports 12 Talos 2 SSDs and can scale from 100 to 10,000 VDI desktops; and a tethered VDI solution that supports 16 Talos 2 SSDs and expands the capabilities of the existing VMWare infrastructure without expensive overhead costs. The first of these VDI-specific HyVE Systems have been delivered to school districts in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and are scheduled to go live later this month.